iPhone XS draws crowds to Apple stores, even after all these years

Justin, 22 and Ross, 20, at the front of the line at the Union Square San Francisco Apple Store are from Oakland, and have been in line here since Tuesday.

Comparing different Apple Watch Series 4 bands as they go on sale at the Union Square Apple Store in San Francisco.

Shopping for a new Apple Watch Series 4 as it goes on sale in San Francisco on September 21, 2018.

Shopping for a new Apple Watch Series 4. It's a deal. 

Nike's Colin Kaepernick billboard looks down over the Apple Store in Union Square in San Francisco, Calif. as the iPhone XS goes on sale on September 21, 2018.

The line in front of the Apple Store in San Francisco's Union Square.

While the queues outside Australia's flagship Apple store in Sydney were down from last year (when the company celebrated the iPhone's 10th anniversary with the launch of the iPhone X), dedicated fans were still lining up to get their hands on the new iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and Apple Watch Series 4 on Friday in front of the waiting media scrum.

Apple store employees look down over the balcony at the queues outside (in between erupting into fits of summer camp cheering).

Teddy Lee, a 20-year-old restaurant management student from South Korea was first in line for the public queue in Sydney. While he currently owns a Samsung phone, he was keen to switch to a gold iPhone XS.

"My first smartphone was iPhone 4," he said. "Currently I'm using Samsung, but I'm going to switch to iPhone because iPhone is more [of a] fit for me."

Mazen Kourouche, 21, is a regular at Apple's Sydney store. For the past four years, he's been at the front of the line to buy new iPhones to unbox on his YouTube channel. On Friday, he was first in the preorder queue, waiting to pick up his iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and Apple Watch Series 4. He also plans to buy an iPhone XR when it goes on sale.

"I do flip a lot of my tech," he said.

Namrata Singh, 37, and her friend Rohit Das, 40, are both on holiday from India. Singh, a domestic pilot based in New Delhi, came to the Apple Sydney store to try her luck in the queue (after dropping her last phone in the toilet). Compared to India, Singh said Apple's Australian launch was quite a spectacle.

"I haven't seen people queue up for Apple in India at all," she said. "So I'm quite surprised to see these queues... it's fairly fascinating."

Apple staff get ready to open the doors as staff cheer inside.

Teddy Lee and Mazen Kourouche walk out of the Apple Sydney store with their new iPhones (and Apple Watch). Apple's stores on Australia's east coast are the first in the world to open their doors, making Lee and Kourouche among the first buyers in the world to get their hands on the new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.

Mazen Kourouche headed back into the Apple Sydney store to unbox his new iPhone.

Apple's new gold iPhone was a big draw card for people buying in Sydney.

Apple says the new iPhone XS promises to unlock 30 percent faster using Face ID. That front-facing camera can also be used to create animated Memojis.

The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max on display in the Sydney store. 

It wasn't just about the iPhone on Friday. The Apple Watch Series 4 (shown here with a premium Hermes band) was also on sale at Apple Sydney.

After the excitement of the doors opening, crowds still queued to pick up their preorders.

Half an hour after Apple Sydney opened its doors, customers were still steadily walking in off the street to buy the new iPhone XS.

Apple fans queued as early as 7 a.m. Thursday to be the first in the region to own the new iPhones.

Customers from around Southeast Asia queued up at the Apple Store in Singapore's Orchard Road shopping belt to get their hands on the new phone. The Singapore Apple Store is the only one in the region for now. 

Student Daniel Lim, 23, was the first to get his hands on two 512GB iPhone XS Max. He preordered his phones so didn't have to queue overnight, waiting only an hour before he got his new toys.

Self-employed Phan Minh Tuan, 25, flew in from Vietnam to get his hands on the iPhone XS Max in gold. He had been waiting in line since 5 p.m. Thursday along with five of his friends, also from Vietnam.

Apple staff welcomed walk-ins and preorder customers in the usual style.

Dozens of people gather for the launch of the new iPhone XS at the door of the iconic Apple Store de Sol, in Madrid, on Friday morning.

Some of the people waiting in line preordered their iPhones. But others have had to queue overnight.

Plenty of people turned up for the launch of the new iPhone XS. But last year we saw more people waiting for the iPhone X.

One of the first people to get their hands on the iPhone XS Max at Sol's store is a Spanish journalist specializing in technology. He checks out the phones in the store before the staff give him his new iPhone.

Regent Street is one of London's main shopping streets, but it's an extremely narrow and struggles to contain the Apple Store queue.

Only a small number of people queued overnight in London. The weather was clear, but it was cold, and Regent Street is a noisy place to spend a night.

The Apple Store employees always know how to turn getting a new iPhone into a celebration.

The first person in the queue this year was a media-shy gentleman who kept his identity private. But he couldn't stop himself from cracking a smile when he got his new iPhone.

Many of those picking up their iPhones took selfies with their new devices or got their friends to take photos of them posing with them.

After the first people in line got their iPhones, the Apple Store filled up fast with people keen to see all the new tech on sale.

Most of the customers were there to pick up preordered iPhones, but the buzz around the Apple Store also attracted people who had yet to make up their minds.

Some people preferred to grab their iPhones and leave, but other customers set their new phones up straight away.

Someone is impressed with the depth effect from the dual-lens camera.

Most customers pay for their new phones with plastic, but some like to flash the cash and pay with paper.

In New York, Apple's flagship store, "the Cube," is still undergoing a renovation, so the company opened a temporary store just behind it. 

To get to the line from the west side you'll walk by the walled-off construction zone.

You can get in either a preorder line, or a line for folks who just want to go in and buy a phone inside.

Abraham Papas, age 24, visiting from Turkey, waited for 15 hours and is first on the non-preorder line.

Preorder customers will be let in first.

The lines go down the block on both sides.

Meanwhile Apple's staff gets psyched for the day's madness.

The first guy in the preorder line gets high fives from Apple store staff as he enters the store.

I went upstairs to check out the view from above the registers.  

Only a certain number of people are allowed in at one time. It's a lot, but it appears manageable.

Now that's a happy customer.

Abraham is upgrading from a 6S Plus to the XS Max, so he's pretty excited.  He said he didn't buy the iPhone X because it was too small.

Having completed his purchase, he's ready to go.